Saturday, September 06, 2008

Why Sarah Palin is so popular

One of the reasons I have had so many posts on the Palin nomination is that about 25 percent of the posts in my Google Reader are discussing it (more like 50 percent right after it happened). If I had only to judge from the number of posts on my reader, this would have to be the news story of the year.

I wanted to point out what I think are the three interesting things about it, sort of in answer to the question, "Why is Sarah Palin so popular?"

The first reason is that the biggest part of the old Reagan coalition, those Republicans who became Republicans because of the fiscal and social conservatism that Reagan expounded, have lacked a leader since Reagan left the political stage. What you saw last week was a group of people who think they have finally found someone who really believes what they believe and who can articulate it, possibly as well as the Great Communicator himself.

The first reason is that social conservatives think they have found a leader; the second reason is that conservatives think they have found a champion. When Palin took it to the Democrats in her first national speech, conservatives realized that there was someone in their midst who knew how to wield the big stick and do it in an endearing way.

The third reason is less about Sarah Palin herself than it is about what the idea of Palin does to the Democrats. Conservatives are experiencing pure glee that a hockey mom from Alaska with five children is sending the Democrats into either fits of indignation or seizures of fear. The people who had been singing the hosannahs of a man with little experience himself have all of a sudden been seized by the realization of the importance of experience, although they don't appear to want to apply it to their own candidate. And realizing their predicament, they are now sending e-mail memos warning each other of the dangers of attacking her, although the e-mails have apparently not reached the inbox of Andrew Sullivan.

That all of this could be done by a woman in a party that the Democrats are always charging is anti-woman is just icing on the cake.